All in the family

LODI - It all began innocently enough, with a 2-year-old playing basketball on a small hoop in the garage of his family's home in Concord.

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By Jagdip Dhillon

recordnet.com

By Jagdip Dhillon

Posted Mar. 7, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 7, 2013 at 12:16 PM

By Jagdip Dhillon

Posted Mar. 7, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 7, 2013 at 12:16 PM

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LODI - It all began innocently enough, with a 2-year-old playing basketball on a small hoop in the garage of his family's home in Concord.

Basketball grew to be the life's work of Bob Thomason and his family's legacy.

Thomason, set to coach the final two home games in his 25th and final season as the men's basketball coach at Pacific, fell in love with the game at a young age, inspired by his father, Bob Thomason Sr., a former player at San Jose State and longtime head coach at Pittsburg High. That passion led Thomason to a standout career at Pacific from 1967-71 and a long coaching career that included stops at the high school, community college and Division III levels before a quarter-century stint at his alma mater.

"It started at 2 years old with a little hoop in the garage, and it's always been there," said Donna Thomason, the 84-year-old mother of Pacific's coach. "I always knew where he was growing up because he spent many, many hours out there in the driveway shooting."

Bob Thomason was born into basketball and has never left the game, bringing his entire family along for the ride. His wife, Jerri, his sons, Jeff and Scott, and his parents have experienced all the highs and lows of his coaching career, with Scott even playing for his father at Pacific from 1997-99 and eventually becoming the head boys basketball coach at Sierra High in Manteca. Donna Thomason said she's attended basketball games for 65 years, with more to come now that her great grandson, Kyle, is playing the sport.

"My mom has probably watched more games than anyone in the world," Thomason said. "Having basketball in our family has just been amazing and it's just been the way it is. We talk basketball, shooting, this and that at dinner and at family events. The good thing is you have it all the time, and that's also the bad thing about it."

Jerri and Bob's parents have attended nearly all of the 375 games Thomason has coached at Spanos Center, and they used to regularly follow the team on the road. Though Bob has enjoyed sharing the coaching experience with his family, he doesn't like what has become of his profession in recent years and believes he might be retiring at the right time.

"Twenty-five years ago, Division I was different than it is now," Thomason said. "It's getting worse and worse with NCAA compliance and the firing of coaches. I don't think it's conducive to having a great family (situation)."

Thomason managed to have a family life, thanks in large part to Jerri, who did all of the things he wasn't able to do with his hectic schedule. Their oldest son, Jeff, played basketball through high school but eventually broke away from the family business to become a police officer in Oakland after graduating from Pacific in 1997 with a degree in sociology with an emphasis in law enforcement.

"Basketball was always there," said Jeff, now 39 and living in Lafayette with his wife Allison and children Kyle (9) and Ella (6). "I don't think there was a vacation or a dinner where he wasn't thinking about basketball. He'd always be talking about it and drawing up plays on napkins. He thinks about it waking up and goes to sleep watching film."

Thomason, who will turn 64 on March 26, watches game film on a 55-inch, high-definition television in his home office and has drawn up plays on a computer tablet the past couple of years. He admits he can only fake "turning it off."

Scott knew at an early age he'd follow in his father's and grandfather's footsteps.

"I don't know if I was destined to do it, but I just love basketball," said Scott Thomason, who's in his 14th season at Sierra, which he led to the state playoffs for the second consecutive season. "I don't know what else I would do. It's the only thing I know how to do."

His father came to the same conclusion early in his days as a student-athlete at Pacific, though the elder Thomason encouraged his son to go into business rather than chase a coaching career that he figured wouldn't be as lucrative. That plan only lasted a semester, as Thomason changed majors from business to physical education and began the path to coaching.

Jerri said while the Tigers' four NCAA Tournament trips in 1997, 2004-2006 were enjoyable, her favorite time was when Scott was a non-scholarship player on the basketball team. Bob doesn't remember it as fondly. Some on the team and the outside perceived he was playing favorites with his son.

"It's never good to coach your own son as a general statement," Bob said. "It's not so much about what goes on with your son and you, but what goes on with your family and other people. It was more fun for me than it was for Scott."

Like his dad, Scott, a 5-foot-8 guard, was an outstanding outside shooter and finished his career as Pacific's all-time leader in 3-point field goal percentage, .468 (89 of 190).

"He wasn't a Division I player, so he had to fight his tail off and he got better and better," said Thomason, who then pointed out another trait his son shares with him: "He is so competitive and has a fire about being successful. He's had to prove things his whole life."

Thomason said it's been more difficult watching Scott coach than it was watching him play or coaching him. Scott, who has a 2-year-old son, Dru, with his wife, Amber, said he's borrowed many principles and plays from his father over the years, which is appropriate because Bob said he learns from his 86-year-old father to this day. Bob Sr., who used to be an active coaching participant in many of Pacific's practices and was known as the "Shot Doctor," still has strong opinions about the game and isn't afraid to voice them. The elder Thomason is fond of saying, "There's no team that's worth a damn that's not fundamentally sound."

The younger Thomason's coaching career began soon after he graduated from Pacific in 1971. He started as an assistant for Tom Conway at Stagg High (1971-73), then was the head coach at Escalon High from 1973-76 and Turlock High from 1976-1981. He was the head coach at Columbia College in Sonora from 1981-85 and then at Cal State Stanislaus from 1985-1988. Stagg's teams went 53-0 and earned two section titles with Thomason on the staff. His Escalon teams won two league titles and finished second in the section in 1973-74. He led Turlock to its first league title in 25 years in 1979-80, and the Bulldogs set a school record for wins (25) the following season. In 1983-84, Columbia won a school-record 27 games and Thomason led the Claim Jumpers to their first league title the following season. In 1986-87, Cal State Stanislaus reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Thomason eventually had an opportunity to coach at Pacific, but the program was going through a rough period that included a 5-24 mark the season prior to Thomason's arrival in March 1988. Thomason said he got the job because of his ties to Pacific, but he has proven it was the right decision with 20 winning seasons over the next 25 years.

Thomason is the all-time leader in wins at Pacific (431) and the Big West Conference with 246 and counting. But he admits he has never been fond of losing, and Jerri said dealing with her husband's mood after a loss - and there have been 321 in his career at Pacific - was a skill everyone in the family learned.

"The biggest lie Bob ever told me was, 'I'm the same whether we win or lose,' " Jerri said with a laugh. "We used to have parties after games all the time and I quickly realized that we didn't need to have people over after we lost. But it's just been our life and that's the way we've learned to live."